It makes me laugh that you could be so gullible. Many of their parts are the exact same as those designed and offered by other manufacturers/vendors.

that's my point - not that they aren't up to quality standards, because they are. But it would be nice to see them put some unique effort into the performance aspects of the aftermarket.

After all, if anybody could bring the performance out of a Nissan/Infniti vehicle... why shouldn't it be a division of that manufacturer? Talk about easy access to inside information. Many aftermarket tuners would kill to have that type of access, and it's amazing what they accomplish without that access.

 

The million-dollar question is this: "Is Nismo an engineering or marketing arm of Nissan?"

If they're engineering, then yes they would be designing unique parts and have respectable manufacturers produce them. They most likely would not be sold by those manufacturers, they would be exclusive Nismo parts. In reality that is not the case, the Nismo CAI is the same as the one you can buy from AEM. The exhaust is the same as the Fujitsubo.

If they're a marketing function, then they would spec a part and find a manufacturer who makes something that meets those specs. They might be able to convince a manufacturer to make an altered version of something to be unique to Nismo, like the wheels made by Rays for example.

Personally, I think they're a little bit of both. The real engineering happens on the high end for the true race car stuff. The marketing end of the group is for our benefit.

 

If I ever traded my car in at a nissan dealership, would I get dinged on more for having non nismo parts or nismo parts? I think I would get dinged less since they did put their name on these products right?

 

what do you mean by "dinged"?

 

When selling a car or trading it in, nobody pays for mods except for you. A dealership isn't going to give you any more because you have NISMO goodies on it or brand-x aftermarket. You paid for them because you wanted them. Now of course when they go to sell your car they WILL try to mark up the price because they will give the next buyer the line, "It would cost you $X to reproduce this car..." Making thier price then look like a great deal. Just my personal experience....

 

no not getting more for the car!
like if you traded in a stock 350z thell give ya lets say 20k right
and then you have a moded up 350z with all the goodies thell give ya like 15k right! ok now lets say you bringing in a car with all nismo will it be at 20k or 15k? even though the brand you used is a nissan brand?

 

You could not be more wrong.

 

Nismo is so wabi-sabi.

 

Heh.. here is my take...
If I were to buy their entire line of product and keep everything neat and tidy but still have performance, NISMO is what I'd do. Because NISMO makes basically everything for the car except a few things ie. Brake rotors, Testpipes (illegal in a sense), Sparkplugs, etc etc.
If you like to mix and match for your aftermarket needs ... just do it that way... but IMO NISMO is like Dinan for BMW... it is quite expensive, performance isnt tier 1, but the name, the prestigious name is there...

Yeah...

 

I went to japanparts.com and nismo sells even racing heads and lots stuff I never knew they did, kinda intresting

 

So if there is nothing special about Nismo, can someone point me toward a set of aftermarket springs with similar rates to the Nismo setup?

Chris

 

the sway bars are made by someone else and rebadged per my service advisor at nissan but i cant remember the co. poss hotchis?

 

I am more than positive Nismo in Japan engineers there own parts. I sure their heads, spec 1 and 2 cams (some of the most aggressive cams), spring, rods, piston, etc are all engineered by them. Unfortunately Nismo in the US is different and doesn't have the same parts available here.

 

I completley agree with that. If anyone is to bring the best out of the Z, you would think it was be NISMO(of course i'm talking about consumer prodcuts not higher end gt products). Evidence of this is when Best Motoring had the 3 Z's go at each other, the Amuse, Nismo and one other I can't remember. The Nismo came in dead last, wasn't even really a competitor in the race. They even said it mods were not as aggriessive and didn't bring out the best atributes in the Z like other other Manufactures modifications did. It was a very interesting DVD.

Basically with NISMO you were paying for, name, quality and peace of mind. Plus I believe NISMO is geared more at the enthusiast then the hardcore track guy who buys JIC etc.

 

the stock exhaust is Calsonic

Precisely or someone who wants to bring the car up a level and still retain great daily driveability.

I still can't seem to find similar springs by anyone, all the specs from others have much lower rates. Most have lower rates than the factory back 04.5 springs.

Chris

 

I 2nd that. Love my Nismo exhaust. Shiney and Purty

 

The aftermarket parts business is very different than the auto manufacturing business. Nissan makes profit on high-volume. Of Nissan's entire automobile line, only a few cars get modded (typically), the 350z being the most modded of those few. Even so, maybe 5-10% (just a guess) of 350z's on the road get modded. And, Nismo gets only some of those sales (the rest going to other vendors). Therefore, Nismo sales are a tiny drop in the bucket for Nissan (read: not a high priority in the big picture for Nissan).

Also, it is much better for Nissan and the 350z community to encourage and support aftermarket vendors (read: avoid stepping on their territory). If Nismo did the best of everything, people would buy only Nismo and the parts aftermarket would dry up and die. The health of the parts aftermarket is a good indication of the popularity and health of the 350z market.

 

Gullible? The only nismo part i own are the wheels, and thats because i got a killer deal on them and they look sick in bronze on a Lemans Z.

NISMO engineers all of their products (straight the horses mouth, the 350z club of florida has been blessed with the opportunity to meet many big wigs at nissan and nismo), they simply out source the mass production to companies that can do it much more affordably. If NISMO made all of their products in house, do you have any idea how much they would cost?

 

I have over 9000 dollars in nismo performance mods.... will they add value.. not unless you purchase them at the time of your vehicle purchase because then it will be included in the sticker price/ value of the car....... i know what im talking about on that.....
now on the perfomance quality i think that nismo is on top with the great names... for ex. nismo headers may not have as much power as alpha werks....... but id trust the nismo to quality and warrantee no other company really offers.......

my.02 cents....

 

There is no guess work on the value of the car at trade-in. They go by the book, the car dealer book not the private sale book. There are flat deductions made for modifications to the car and there is no difference for what brand name mod it is. You always do better by selling privately.